Content Aware media news: September 01, 2022

Facebook legal stuff, police and media, and a 1.4 billion mile data recovery - all in this week's Content Aware media highlights.

Published: 11:51, 02 September 2022

A brief history of subscription pages
Comparing how leading global publishers chose to net their subscriber fish highlights many commonalities in approach, but also some interesting differences. This article's exploration of strategies and designs, with visual comparisons from as far back as 2012, is insightful and proves that if nothing else, the Subscribe button has got much bigger.
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Google's pleased by quickies?
It seems Google is testing a label that attaches to content that is quick to read. By that, we assume this means content which provides information in the shortest form possible while remaining useful. How that is decided is the key part of course, and only Google knows that metric.
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The long arm of the flawed
Britain's Society of Editors have warned against new guidelines issued by the country's College of Policing, which see news reporters put into the same category of "notifiable associations" as convicted criminals. That is to say associations which police officers should declare in order to avoid accusations of conflicts of interest.
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Tile Points
Twitter is allowing some publishers the use of customisable cards in users' feeds. They look good and greatly improve the chance for publishers to "shop window" their content, and it's arguable they are long overdue to help combat claims that Twitter is more Petri dish of concentrated idiocy than home of quality content.
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Corbidge comments... on the police and reporters
Will new UK police advice (above) just lead to greater mistrust between the police and public? Our head of Content Intelligence warns against unintended consequences.
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NASA's data pipeline issue
You think you've got troubles? Imagine diagnosing a data corruption issue onboard Voyager 1, currently 1.4 billion miles away and 45 years old.
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Sports sites, ranked
A breakdown of the popularity of various dedicated sport sites in the UK reveals a number of things. Firstly, while the specialists will never have the largest audience, their showing is impressive here, and you can guarantee they know their audience. Secondly, there's an interesting mix of established brands and newer ones. The sports publishing market is alive and well. There's a missing piece in this data though, a vast one called the BBC Sports Department.
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And now, new p0lit1cs
Years from now, will small gangs of former news anchors only exist on the edge of society, eking out a living as highbrow gameshow hosts? We have our doubts about AI news presenters, but perhaps for the generations raised on video games it could be an idea that is coming at the right time.
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Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive
Facebook has settled a Cambridge Analytica related lawsuit, and consequently an interesting statement is being crafted: the wording will be revealing in what it doesn't say as much as what it does, and however hard they have to contort to avoid mentioning Meta and Mark Zuckerberg. It's arguably the deepest stain on the company's corporate record.
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